Scott Capurro's Position

Veteran Fringe standup Scott Capurro and newcomer David Mills join forces in a chat show that invites famous names at the Fringe along for an hour of banter about their life and work. The two work in effective, bitchy harmony, catty remarks being batted between the two throughout, working to give it momentum that they fail to generate through the interviews themselves.

Despite a six-week run in London, Capurro is still shaky in his interview style; he seems to want to hear certain answers and won't stop till he's got them. He lets the need to get his own laughs interfere, interrupting the flow with a series of unfunny asides and alienating some of the audience with a few inappropriate comments – chief among them a patronising remark about South Africa not being developed enough for comedy. 

At times Capurro and Mills seem to forget that they're not doing late-night standup – for a PG-rated afternoon show, Mills' opening reference to his talent for autofellatio and the pair's subsequent crudeness throughout are ill-judged and leave the parents in the audience looking uncomfortable next to their bewildered children.

Today's show picks up only with the arrival of cabaret act Le Gateau Chocolat. Though dressed in a huge day-glo orange tutu, he moves the audience with a candid soliloquy on his sexuality and difficulty in reconciling a strict Nigerian upbringing with his career as a drag artist. Hardly requiring prompting by his hosts, Mills and Capurro need not have been there at all.